Behind the latest flare-up between Washington and Kyiv sits a question the New York Times put on the record this week: what exactly is the United States offering Moscow? The paper reported that US officials floated economic incentives to the Kremlin on the negotiating track, even as Trump announced a trump ukraine ceasefire deal that Ukraine says it never discussed.

What the Times reported Washington offered Moscow

The New York Times reported that US officials offered the Kremlin economic incentives, including releasing billions in frozen Russian sovereign assets and revisiting a plan to sell parts of Lukoil to Middle Eastern investors. According to the paper, the multibillion-dollar arrangement would benefit Middle Eastern investors, some of whom have "business ties" to US negotiators.

The report landed in the same week that Trump lifted sanctions on Russian diesel exports, a move he said would reduce global and domestic fuel prices before next month's US midterm elections. It also followed meetings in Florida in which Ukrainian negotiators sat down with US counterparts Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, then went home early; one Ukrainian official told the Kyiv Independent: "It felt like a trap."

The announcement Kyiv says it never discussed

The economic report frames an announcement that caught Ukraine off guard. In a Truth Social post, Trump declared: "Effective immediately, there is an ENERGY CEASEFIRE in the War between Russia and Ukraine. Both parties have agreed. Do not break it!" He offered no further details. He made the same claim in September, which turned out to be untrue.

Zelenskyy, confronted with the declaration, said Ukraine would go along if Moscow did the same.

That statement, from Zelenskyy, came with a caveat: Ukrainian officials said Russia was still bombing Ukraine on Sunday, with several energy sites damaged.

Kyiv's conditions and the air war

Zelenskyy rebuffed Trump's Saturday demand that Kyiv stop bombing Russian oil refineries, saying Moscow had to first halt its own "brutal" attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure. He said any deal ending Ukrainian long-range drone strikes inside Russia would have to be "reciprocal" and backed by real guarantees, meaning punitive measures against Moscow by allies including the US.

He added that strikes on energy infrastructure could stop as early as that day, but Putin did not want to do so. Ukrainian officials say the White House is demanding Kyiv give up its most effective weapon without corresponding Russian concessions, after strikes that hit oil complexes, warehouses and datacentres.

The bombing continued through the weekend:

• •Russian strikes killed 23 people in Zaporizhzhia on Saturday, including four children, and hit a five-storey apartment block in Sloviansk.
• •Zelenskyy said Moscow's aerial campaign involves thousands of aerial bombs and jet-powered drones and has continued "unabated".
• •On Sunday, several energy sites were damaged as Russian attacks went on.

A Ukrainian lawmaker sees a 'new Molotov-Ribbentrop pact'

Oleksandr Merezhko, head of Ukraine's foreign affairs committee, said Trump's "bullying" demand for Zelenskyy to quit had "paradoxically" strengthened him at home after corruption scandals. He said Putin's aim is to remove Zelenskyy as a wartime leader, and that Trump is siding with Putin, wanting to do business with him and pressuring Ukraine into capitulation.

Merezhko drew a parallel with 1939: "We are moving to a new Molotov-Ribbentrop pact and to a world of strongmen and spheres of influence."

He said Ukraine would keep destroying enemy oil refineries despite US wishes, and warned that a cutoff of US intelligence sharing would blind Ukraine's air defences. "This would be an act of complicity with Putin's genocide. It would mean more dead civilians and dead children," he said.

Zelenskyy spent Saturday in calls with the UK prime minister, Andy Burnham, France's president, Emmanuel Macron, and the Finnish president, Alexander Stubb. Downing Street said Burnham "reiterated his complete solidarity" and that the leaders agreed to maintain pressure on Russia and strengthen sanctions.

No start date or terms for the ceasefire Trump announced have been named, and Russian strikes on Ukrainian energy sites were still reported on Sunday.